Mozilla Labs has developed a new add-on for Firefox called Weave. It syncs your Firefox history, open tabs, bookmarks, and more to the “cloud.” If you own multiple computers, and have Weave installed on them, then any changes to your browsing history, saved passwords, bookmarks, and even the tabs you had open will be reflected on all of them. Unfortunately it does not support syncing of add-ons, so your extensions, themes, and plugins will not be synced. Despite that, it’s still a great tool. Plus, since all the data is synced with the cloud, you can use Weave as a backup utility for Firefox as well. It’s especially handy in the case of a PC crash or when reinstalling an operating system.

Weave is similar to another add-on for Firefox called Xmarks, formerly Foxmarks. While Xmarks is cross-platform application that keeps bookmarks synced on Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, and Safari; that’s all it does, bookmarks. The ability to save open tabs, saved passwords, browsing history and even ‘Awesome Bar’ data makes Weave truly appealing. I have been using Weave since the early beta days without any problems and just recently it has been upgraded to version 1.0 RC2. It’s definitely getting closer to the 1.0 release. I recommend that anyone with multiple machines give Weave a try!

Links: Mozilla Labs | Mozilla Weave

Let’s admit it, Windows 7 has a pretty good looking login window. However, that won’t stop tweaks from figuring out ways to modify it. The setup usually requires messing with the system registry and messing with system files. Fortunately, Tweaks.com created an awesome little tool to solve the problem. You don’t even need to install it. Just download and run. So here’s what you do:

Program Method:

1. Download: ‘Logon Changer‘ (242K)
2. Launch the application
3. Click ‘Change Logon Screen’
4. Browse to the image you want
5. A preview of the logon screen appears

And that’s it. It’s that easy. The tool automatically re-sizes and makes the image you provided look right. There’s no further hacks needed. If you ever want to revert back to the original image provided by Microsoft, just launch the Tweaks.com program again. There’s a one-click “Revert to Default Logon Screen” button. Press it and everything should be back to normal. Enjoy!

Links: Tweaks.com Post

DVD’s, Books, and Games
Google Goggles picked up results for Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Wii), Caddyshack (DVD), and The Color Purple by Alice Walker (Book) with ease.

Business Cards
Though the format of the business card I used may have been an issue, I wasn’t able to pull up as much contact information as the example on the app’s website. It found the name and company, but not the phone number or email address, even after a couple of tries.

Logos
In general, logos work really well. The first thing I did when I installed Goggles was take pictures of the numerous empty bottles on my desk; every one of them was found successfully. However, the logo on my sweatshirt did not work, which is pretty disappointing considering the reputation of UC Davis.

Places
Goggles also allows you to identify nearby places using your phone’s GPS and compass. The app displays the names of businesses in the direction you point the camera at the bottom of the screen. In areas where I had good GPS signal, this feature was fairly accurate. This would be really handy for exploring new places, though I imagine you would look pretty silly using this to find the nearest Starbucks.

Conclusion
I had my doubts with this application; it’s not everyday someone invents a Pokédex. The verdict: it works almost as well as advertised and faster than you would expect. After you snap a photo, the analysis generally takes less than ten seconds. If you have a phone with Android 1.6 or later, head to the Android Market on your phone and try out this app. PC World reports that Goggles will reach other platforms, but if you have an iPhone or Blackberry you are out of luck for now.

Links: Google Goggles

Faster and More Responsive
Android 2.0 was by no means slow. The update did make some noticeable improvements on speed and stability. Programs open, close, and switch quicker than before.

New “Unlock” Screen
The most obvious change when you first open the Droid is in the “unlock” screen. Though the principle is the same, the interface uses drag-able “tabs” rather than the “wheel” used in 2.0.

Battery Life Increased
This is Verizon’s claim and not my own, however, the phone did last the grueling holiday drive from Sacramento to San Diego with some juice to spare. That includes a solid two hours of music streaming with Pandora and a half hour of using Google Maps Navigation to find my way out of a shady corner of Los Angeles.

Auto Focus Fixed
Some people have reported problems with the Droid’s auto focus ability. The update fixes this and shortens the delay time between shots.

Improved Call Audio
Somehow, Google managed to improve the already impeccable audio during calls. The difference isn’t drastic in my opinion, but I’ll take their word for it.

Speakerphone Fixed
I never ran into this problem before, but when receiving a call on call waiting, the speakerphone turns off. The speakerphone now remains on.

Bluetooth Improvements
The update eliminates the background echo created when using a Bluetooth headset. If you have a car like the Lexus R400h which allows you to transfer contacts via Bluetooth, you are in luck. Android 2.0.1 improved the ability to beam up your phone book with Bluetooth.

Support for Seven-Digit Numbers
You can now send text messages and multimedia messages to seven-digit numbers. Also, you can merge contacts with seven-digit numbers.

Visual Voice Mail Delay Fixed
Verizon Visual Voice Mail provides an interface for your voice mail. It allows you to view caller information and voice mail information for each message without having to deal with the standard “to replay this message, press 7, etc.” New voice mail messages now appear right after they arrive. It used to take a few minutes for the message to show up. WiFi access has also been enabled.

Other Thoughts:
On another note, I’m hoping Google finds a better way to control the audio volume. Right now, there are separate volume levels for calls, ringer, media playback, and navigation.  To adjust the volume, you have to open a corresponding application and then use the buttons on the side of the phone to adjust the volume. For instance, I have to open the media player to change the media playback volume. So, if I’m listening to music at a reasonable level and the navigation decides to scream at me, I have to switch to the navigation application to relieve my ears. I’d like the side buttons to control the master volume have individual volume controls in the notification area. That way when I need to make a “LEFT ON ANDERSEN PARKWAY IN ONE QUARTER MILE!”, I can quickly turn it down.

Support: Droid Update Info
Related: Motorola Droid Review

Right off the bat, Ubuntu earned my respect. Installing the entire OS, after deleting and creating new partitions, on my less-than-average HP dv5z took less than 20 minutes. (Side note- the HP dv5z disappoints me greatly. I do not recommend this slow, unstable, and easily-overheating laptop to anyone. I hope the new laptops in this series fare better than this.) I thought it would take a painful hour or more, so finishing the installation in this amount of time pleased me. After downloading all the necessary updates for the system, which went by pretty quickly, I restarted my computer (Ubuntu booted up in about 20 seconds), took a deep breath, and dove in.

The simple layout of the desktop and destinations make using this system fairly easy. The three tabs at the top—Applications, Places, and System—are the Ubuntu equivalent of the Windows Start, Explorer, and Control Panel functions. However, Ubuntu organizes all the files, folders, and programs better. For example, in Ubuntu, if I want to open up the mouse preferences, I simply go  to System, then from the drop-down menu hover over “Administration”, and then click on the “Mouse” preferences. In the cluttered Windows XP & Vista, I click on the Start Menu, then on the Control Panel. I then have to browse through the control panel in search for the Mouse preferences item. That once again opens up another window. With Ubuntu, only one window opened up, the Mouse preferences, unlike Windows where I had several already. Everything feels faster to do too. And like I said above, I can click on any file or program up in this fashion and do it quickly and cleanly. Also, as an alternative and supplement for Linux users, Ubuntu features a console and similar Linux programs.

In addition, I enjoyed toying around with the highly customizable user interface. One of my favorite features, I get to change almost every aspect of the desktop. I can add new panels (a.k.a. taskbars) and place folders or programs on them. In addition to changing to the provided theme, I can make a completely new one, with my own color, image, and font scheme. Other than the desktop, the animation effects increased the fun and cool factor using the OS. By downloading free software called Compiz, I am able to use many different effects including making my windows wobble, opening/closing files using a “magic lamp” animation, or starting a really big multicolored fire on my screen. A user can spend hours customizing by just using Compiz: the possibilities are endless. While some of those features are definitely gimmicks, others truly help with productivity.

Continuing on the idea of possibilities, by going to the Ubuntu Software Center, I have the ability to download almost any open-source program or software for free. There are many alternatives to replace programs on Windows or Mac. A few main stream ones, such as Mozilla Firefox or the VLC Media player, can already run on Ubuntu. Others, such as Adobe Photoshop, cannot, but Ubuntu remedied this problem by finding a somewhat comparable alternative to download, in this case, Gimp. I found every program that I used on Windows, whether it be the Linux version or an alternative one through the Ubuntu Software Center. Even if I did not like the comparable Ubuntu software or if I run into issues, there’s plenty of new applications being added by developers from all over the world and a huge community to offer support.

As great as Ubuntu runs, there are a couple problems that cannot be overlooked. For one, the wireless connectivity, at least for me, works poorly. More often than not, I cannot connect to a network. If I do end up connecting, the connection to that network frequently drops. Although a solution to this problem most likely exists, it is nonetheless still an annoyance. But again, this only happens with a few of my connections, not all of them. (It could also be an issue with my HP hardware.) Another issue I can now overlook, but probably will come up again concerns the use of software. Although alternative software remedies this issue, it does not solve it. If a new updates hits the internet, I am unable to use it because it will most likely only run on Windows and Mac. Also, popular PC games, such as Call of Duty or Halo, can’t run on Ubuntu. Fortunately, I mostly play on consoles, so this did not bother me greatly. Also, though I have yet to download any, Ubuntu advertises over 400 free online games of all genres.

All in all, Ubuntu rocks. After using it for a couple weeks, I became accustomed to it and enjoy it throughly. Much more stable and organized, Ubuntu performs well in my book. However, out of my two computers, I only switched one of my computers to Ubuntu, leaving the other one using a Windows operating system. Being a student with little to no free time, downloading alternative software and learning how to use it turns me off from Ubuntu a bit. I know how to use a lot of the most popular applications as well, but some of those can’t be found on Ubuntu. Other than this and the wireless connectivity issue, I do encourage anyone to give Ubuntu a shot. I will definitely be keeping Ubuntu on my poor-performing laptop since the OS significantly improves my laptop’s usability. I wrongly feared Ubuntu: as the developers put it, Ubuntu most certainly is “Linux for Human Beings!”

Links: Ubuntu.com

After downloading Trillian from the App Store, users are prompted to login with either an existing Trillian Astra Account or to register for a new one. As I’m a existing Trillian Pro customer, I typed in my information and it immediately logged me into my AIM, MSN, and Yahoo! chat accounts, displaying all my contacts. There’s even an option to sign in as invisible. The home screen displays your username, avatar, status, connections, and the contacts directly below. Users will have the ability to add new contacts for any chat protocol, pick a nickname, and even a place them in a group while on the go. The search function also makes it easy to look through large buddy lists. The Favorites Page makes it easy to access contacts you chat with most often without having to scroll or search through the entire list.

The Active Chats page lists all the conversations currently in progress. Clicking on any conversation will open a tabbed chat interface. There’s an easy side-to-side scroll for switching through different conversations quickly. While I was disappointed to see that there was no landscape mode, I was glad to find that clicking on the “More” button offered the ability to view the user’s information, buzz the contact, and even send a photo. According to the support forums, a landscape mode has been developed, but wasn’t included. It might be thrown into a future update.

Overall I was quite satisfied with the the App. It was quite responsive and was easy to use. Since the iPhone doesn’t support running background Apps, Trillian supports Push Notifications. Once logged in, if you exit the App you’ll be able to continue to receive notifications each time you receive an instant message. Clicking on the App will return you the conversation without loosing any messages. Plus if you’re a user of the Desktop version, it instantly synchronizes data between both. The addition of a contact, a rename, or  anything else on either iPhone or the Desktop Client will be relayed to the other. It also supports remaining logged into Astra, AIM, and XMPP accounts on both devices at once. I would like to see chat history and support for other services also included for Yahoo! and Windows Live Messenger. The other feature Trillian for the iPhone lacked was support for Facebook Chat. While the Facebook iPhone App allows chat, it would still be nice to see it offered within Trillian as it’s a centralized location. Plus, it would be convenient with Push Notifications already supported.

If you’re interested, it’s available for download now from the iTunes App Store. While it would have been neat to see Cerulean Studios offer paid Trillian Pro customers the iPhone App for free, if you’re a heavy chat users like me, the $5 price isn’t too bad. It’s currently listed as the #1 paid application in the social networking section at the time of publishing this article. If you only chat occasionally, you will probably survive just fine with the free AIM or Yahoo! Messenger App or even IM+ Lite. However as a long-time Trillian fan, I couldn’t resist paying a bit to get the same experience on my iPhone.

Links: Trillian for iPhone on iTunes

Things Needed:

• Download & Install VirtualBox (Free)
• Download & Unzip the Chrome OS image (via GDGT.com)

Update: Looks like GDGT posted a image for VirtualBox as well. However it doesn’t seem to work. Just stick to the VMWare .vmdk file for use with VirtualBox as I did. Otherwise it just loads a black screen.

That’s pretty much it. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask below!

Links: Watch This in HD on Vimeo.com

After grabbing the Delivery Status Touch from the iTunes App Store, it’s quite easy to start using. Just tap the Edit button, and click the ‘+’ icon to add a new item to track. Just about every major domestic delivery service I’ve used was listed and there are quite a few international ones as well. There’s even tracking tools for Amazon, Apple, and Google Checkout orders. Once you choose the service, you’ll have to key in the tracking number and pick a name. Fortunately since the iPhone now has copy and paste, it’s quite simple to grab the code from an email and enter it into this App. Although it might be overkill, I would truly be impressed if they added Optical Character Recognition (OCR) for use with the Camera. I would love to be able to just take a snap of the tracking number on a sheet of paper.

The home screen will display a list of the active packages you are tracking. You can manually sort them or have it automatically organized by delivery dates. Each item updates each time the App is started and will display the number of days until delivery besides each app. There’s also a one-line message of the latest status provided by the carrier and the estimated delivery date. Once delivered, the countdown will be replaced with a check mark. The items are also color coded by each company’s most prominent color. You can click on an item for further details. The map link will display the last known location of the package and your current GPS location. The entire Delivery Status Touch App has a landscape mode and there’s even a Junecloud web page to sync tracking numbers. The application is quite responsive, well polished, and easy to use. The only feature that’s missing that I would love to see in a future version is Push Notifications for deliveries, exceptions, or even progress updates.

There’s plenty of ways to track packages on the iPhone, however none are as well designed as this. If you rarely track packages, you can probably survive just fine using email updates and using the browser to check on packages. On the other hand if you are always have a number of shipments going in and out, this is an excellent tool to stay organized. It’s available for just $3 from the iTunes App Store.

Buy: Launch iTunes App Store
Links: Junecloud.com Delivery Status Touch

So what’s new with version 9.10? A Lot. It offers encryption to better protect your files. It features the latest version of the GNOME interface. The Pidgin chat client has been replaced with Empathy. A file syncing service called Ubuntu One, similar to Dropbox, is included. There’s a lot of performance improvements when it comes to startup. It also uses a new Intel Video Card architecture, the new ext4 file system, and the GRUB 2 boot loader. There’s even better power management handling. So what does that mean for average consumers? It’s more compatible and much faster than ever before.

Ubuntu 9.10 also includes plenty of graphical improvements as well. There’s a new sharp looking login screen, new wallpapers, a new default color scheme, and cleaner looking icons. When you are done using your computer, it even has a clean animation for that! I’ve used the last few iterations of Ubuntu on netbooks, laptops, old desktops, and even in VirtualBox for the past few years. It’s a great OS whether you are a programmer, a geek, or just don’t want to spend the cash on Windows 7 or Snow Leopard. Plus it’s probably the most secure and it’s something unique to show off. If you are interested in giving Ubuntu 9.10 a shot, it will become available for download on October 29th, 2009.

P.S. If you can’t wait, the Release Candidate is already available for download here.

Links: Ubuntu.com | 9.10 Release Notes

Setting up Dropbox is easy. Just visit GetDropbox.com and download the installer for Windows, Macintosh, or Linux. The program will prompt you to register for an account if you are a first time user. A folder named “My Dropbox” will automatically be created. If you have a second or third computer, install Dropbox on those and login with the same username and password. If you have an Apple iPhone or iPod Touch, grab the free Dropbox App from the iTunes App Store. Next just copy any files or folders into the “My Dropbox” folder. Assuming that you are connected to the internet, the files placed in there will automatically be synced to and stored on all your other computers. If you add, delete, or modify files, the changes are relayed over to all your other devices.

The devices I used to test the service included a HP DV2000 laptop running Windows Vista and an iPod Touch. Skatter Tech’s Senior Editor, Sahas Katta, also tested the service with a Dell XPS M1530 laptop running Windows 7, a Dell Mini 9 netbook running Windows XP, an ancient Desktop running Ubuntu 9.04, and an iPhone 3GS. With Dropbox setup on all those mentioned devices, the service worked across every single device flawlessly. Dropbox is truly a cross-platform marvel.

I tested the service by dropping some documents (PDF, DOC, PPT), music (MP3, AAC), and videos (AVI, MP4) into the “My Dropbox” folder. The small document files only took a few seconds to sync and appear on the other devices, however the larger video files took a lot longer. And say you don’t have access to any of your devices, but need to get to your files. Just visit GetDropbox.com from any web browser, login, and a copy of all your files is accessible through the web interface. The service also creates quick “share links” you can email or instant message to friends to give them access to certain files or folders.

While the free version limits space to just 2GB, you can get more space in two ways. If you invite friends to use the service using the referral program Dropbox recently launched, you’ll be given more space each time someone signs up using your link. And if truly need a lot more space, Dropbox charges $10/month for a 50GB account and $20/month for a 100GB account. As someone who mainly uses for documents, which barely take up any space, the free version suffices. However with how useful the service has been for my productivity since I began using it, if I do end up needing more space I wouldn’t mind paying. Overall, Dropbox is simply a convenient, easy to use, and foolproof service that saves you the time of having to manually manage your data across multiple machines. Plus with their new mobile iPhone App, I can quickly load and view the majority of documents while away from a computer. Other than slow sync times due to my occasionally slow internet connection, I couldn’t find a single flaw in the service. If you constantly move data between two or more machines, give this a shot!

Links: GetDropbox.com
Video: What is Dropbox?

Note: This article was co-written and edited by Sahas Katta.

The iPhone App Store has a variety of  unique applications and Air Mouse Pro is one of those special ones. It literally turns your iPhone touch screen display into a wireless mouse and keyboard for your computer. The App is compatible with both Macintosh and Windows computers. It’s easy to use and offers just about all the functionality one would possibly need.

By default it offers the ability to point, click, scroll, type with the onscreen keyboard, and use hand motions to control cursor. It’s also been neatly designed to change the set of controls presented to you depending on the type of application you happen to be using. For example, if you were in the standard view it would show function keys, enter, home, delete, and escape. If you switch to the web view, the commands change to the Back, Forward, Home, Refresh, Stop, Bookmark, and Search buttons. And once again if you were handling media, the keys would change to Play, Pause, Previous Track, Next Track, Mute, and a few more. Most App Developers usually squeeze every button possible into onto a single screen. Fortunately the developers of this app kept usability in mind and kept things clean, organized, and simple. The alternate screen views will help you be more productive.

To get the Air Mouse Pro to work, you’ll actually need to install a small program on your computer named Air Mouse Server. It uses your local Wi-Fi network to establish a connection between your iPhone and your computer. The desktop server program includes options to select hot keys for specific programs and modify the sensitivity of the track pad.

There are a couple of ways to use the Air Mouse Pro. First it can be used as a touch pad, similar to the functionality on a laptop. The second method is to hold down a finger and wave the phone in the air to utilize the iPhone’s accelerometer. The touch pad method was practical and worked fairly well, but on the other hand the accelerometer method was a bit of a gimic. It was quite rather difficult to use. Finally, you’ll also be able to input text using the iPhone built-in on-screen keyboard.

Overall, Air Mouse Pro is a great app and does what it was designed to do, except for the accelerometer portion. The user interface is clean, fancy, and just works. This is especially handy for presentations and for those with Media Center PCs. It is available from the App Store for $2.99.

Links: Air Mouse Pro (iTunes Link)

Just like the standard SanDisk Cruzer, the Ultra Backup model retains a the same traditional form factor. The Ultra Backup is a bit larger the standard Cruzer, but makes up for the size difference with faster data transfer speeds. I copied copy a 465MB file over to the drive in about 30 seconds writing at speeds reaching 15MB/s. Copying a 700MB file off the flash drive also took 30 seconds with a read speed of about 24MB/s. The USB connector recedes into the plastic casing when not in use. A pleasant orange LED flashes when data transfer is in progress.

The best part of this flash drive is the backup utility that doesn’t require installing any software. The entire application resides and runs off the flash drive itself. The first time the Backup Button is used to launch the utility, a quick setup will automatically determine what files should be included in the backup. The interface is user friendly for even the most novice computer users. If you wish to further customize what should be included in the backup, there’s a easy configuration tool to select types of files such as text, music, videos etc. The data is also organized on the flash drive retaining folder structure, which makes things easier when retrieving a file.

Asides from the Backup functionality, the flash drive is still works as a normal flash drive should. Users do have the ability to disable the U3 Launcher, however that would mean that the Backup button would be rendered useless. Some password protection settings are also thrown in for additional security. Your files will most likely be safe if the average person finds your flash drive, but that’s probably not the case if it falls into the hands of someone who knows what they are doing. The Ultra Backup also features a built in Application Store which lists tons of games, media software, and other random tools. For the most part, just about all of the tools were ridiculously over priced and just seemed like an major waste of time to even try. There are fortunately a few good application such as Firefox listed.

Overall the SanDisk Ultra Backup is a reliable, fast, and easy to use flash drive. The Backup utility is the highlight and is excellent for making a copy of important documents in case of data loss. I definitely found the convenience of the physical Backup button useful. SanDisk offers the flash drive in 8GB, 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB capacities for $49.99, $97.99, $166.99, and $277.99. Yes, those MSRPs are a bit ridiculous. If you pick it up from stores such as Amazon.com, it’s available for a fraction of the price.

Links: SanDisk.com Ultra Backup
Buy: Ultra Backup for $29 (no tax + ships free)

In the past I highly recommended AVG Free to just about anyone who was looking for an alternative to the $40-50 per year you would need to pay for either a McAfee or Symantec product. AVG is still a great product, however Microsoft Security Essentials is just a lot more convenient. The installer file size varies between a 5-10MB download based on which version of Windows you are running. The installation process is simple and quick. The user interface makes sense without any confusing technical terms. The program receives updated virus definitions automatically through the built in Windows Update tool to simplify things even further. Windows XP, Vista, and 7 all have a built-in Firewall, the addition of this component completes the entire security package. If you don’t have any anti-virus or anti-spyware protection software running on your computer, there’s no excuse to not try Microsoft’s free solution.

Download: Microsoft Security Essentials

Microsoft most likely is offering this deal to get as many customers switched over to Windows 7 as possible, especially after the widely dreaded Windows Vista. In addition, with Apple selling its latest iteration, Snow Leopard, for just $30, this is a great idea. If you don’t know if your machine supports Windows 7, try running Upgrade Advisor, which will check your system configuration and hopefully give you some good news. To get your copy for $30, just click on the links below!

Links: Win741.com | Windows 7 Student Discount

And that’s not all, if your field of study is any type of technical or engineering majors, you’re eligible for an even better deal. If you sign up with IEEE for a $30 membership, which will last for the rest of the year, you will have access to tons of Microsoft software including Windows 7 Professional x64. (That’s the full edition! Not upgrade version from the deal above.) Signing up as a student using your school’s ‘.edu’ email address and selecting your school from the selector. After about a week, you’ll get an email from MSDNAA giving you a username and password to access and download Windows 7.

Links: IEEE.org Register [via SlickDeals]

Both deals are independent of each other. I’ve personally tried the 2nd option, the IEEE discount, as a student at UC Davis and it worked perfectly. I’ve also purchased Office 2007 through the Ultimate Steal and it worked perfectly. I haven’t had a reason to try the Win741 deal since I already am running Windows 7, but Microsoft officially tweeted about it, so it should be completely safe.

Update 10.05.09: Some of you had emailed in notifying us that Windows 7 was removed from the IEEE MSDNAA list. I took a look into it and it was indeed removed. I decided to shoot an email to IEEE, and here’s there official response:

Microsoft has removed Windows 7 temporarily from this benefit. Management are currently having discussions on the direction they will take with this offer. We regret the inconvenience and will let you know Microsoft’s decision on restoring Windows 7 in this offer for students pursuing technical studies. – Denise Christian, Senior Customer Service Representative, IEEE Computer Society

So at this time, there is no information as to whether it will be put back up anytime soon. For now you folks will have to stick to getting Windows 7 home Premium through the Win711 offer.

Users will notice refinements including a more responsive Finder; Mail that loads messages up to twice as fast; Time Machine with an up to 80 percent faster initial backup; a Dock with Exposé integration; QuickTime X with a redesigned player that allows users to easily view, record, trim and share video; and a 64-bit version of Safari 4 that is up to 50 percent faster and resistant to crashes caused by plug-ins. Snow Leopard is half the size of the previous version and frees up to 7GB of drive space once installed. System applications including Finder, Mail, iCal®, iChat® and Safari are 64-bit and Snow Leopard’s support for 64-bit processors makes use of large amounts of RAM, increases performance and improves security while remaining compatible with 32-bit applications.

Don’t know if your computer is compatible with the new OS? It’s quite simple to figure that out. Just click on “About This Mac” from the “Apple Menu.” If you are running Mac OS X v10.5 Leopard on an Intel based machine, you are good to go! All you’ll have to do is purchase Snow Leopard and pop in the disk to upgrade! So what are you waiting for? Head on over to Apple’s Online Store which even guarantees FREE delivery to your door on August 28th, 2009!

Buy: Snow Leopard – Apple Store | Snow Leopard – Amazon
More Info: $10 Up-To Date Program | Snow Leopard Info

Microsoft Office 2007 Ultimate

To be eligible for this deal, you must have university email address at a ‘.edu’ domain and must be enrolled in at least 0.5 units of course work. We highly recommend taking advantage of this deal since the next cheapest Microsoft Office bundle, the Student and Teacher Edition, costs over $80 and only includes four applications. And if $60 bucks is still too much, the next best alternative is Open Office which is an open source office suite available for download at no cost. In case you are wondering, Open Office is completely legal and is distributed by Sun Microsystems, however I still recommend Office Ultimate for $60.

Buy Now: TheUltimateSteal.com

Modifying Vista’s Shortcut Icon Overlay:

1. Download ‘shortcut-icon-changer.zip‘ and Extract it
2. Close all unnecessary applications except this page
3. Copy ‘Arrow.ico’ into the ‘C:\Windows\’ folder
4. Double-click on ’shortcut-icon-changer.reg’
5. Say ‘Yes’ to accept the changes being made

The setup is now complete, to see the new icon in action you can either reboot your machine or end and restart the “explorer.exe” process in the Windows Task Manager. If you wish to use another ‘.ico’ icon overlay instead of the one provided, just rename it to Arrow.ico and place it in the ‘C:\Windows\’ folder.

Download: shortcut-icon-changer.zip

Notice: Keep in mind that we only provide tweaks that are safe. If something provided here was to result in damaging your machine, we are not responsible. If you need help or have any questions, just leave us a comment below. We’d be glad to help!

When Microsoft Released Service Pack 1 for Vista to Windows Update on March 18th, I upgraded immediately. The process took a while to download since the servers were being hit hard by the large amount people trying to get a hold of the update file. After the download it took about one and a half hour to completely install. It required a few clicks of the “next” button to begin the installation. The computer will be unusable during the process. After it was complete, I was disappointed to find that it was now taking over 5 minutes to start up my machine. It normally took about 2 minutes. In addition there were absolutely no recognizable visual changes. After a few days of use, the performance of my machine drastically changed. Since the upgrade had deleted Vista’s pefetching, caching, and indexing databases, they had to be rebuilt. Today my machine starts up at least 30 seconds faster than it did before SP1. Shut Down, reboot, and suspend speeds have also improved greatly. Launching applications such as Phtotoshop CS3 has become much faster. The best part is that my system hasn’t crashed even once since upgrading. Previously I usually sat staring at blue screens at least a couple of times each week.

Beginning next month, Service Pack 1 will automatically be installed onto your system if you have Auto Updating enabled. However if you want to go ahead and get it now, just launch Windows Update from Vista’s Control Panel and click on check for updates. If it doesn’t appear make sure you have all the critical updates installed. Once you hit install it will close all your programs and then begin the process. The duration it will take to complete will vary depending on the performance of your machine. I was lucky not to run into any major issues whatsoever, however some have complained about major fatal errors. Despite those complains, the majority of those who have upgraded have done so successfully.

Links: Windows Vista Blog

Earlier today Apple announced the iPhone 2.0 software and the iPhone Software Development Kit (SDK). A beta version of the iPhone 2.0 software will be available today, however the finalized version won’t be available to consumers until June. The phone will also be getting much demanded business features such as the compatibility to function with the widely used Microsoft Exchange Servers, which will bring wireless push email, contacts, calendars, and access to encrypted private networks.

“We’re excited about creating a vibrant third party developer community with potentially thousands of native applications for iPhone and iPod touch,” said Steve Jobs – Apple’s CEO.
“iPhone’s enterprise features combined with its revolutionary Multi-Touch user interface and advanced software architecture provide the best user experience and the most advanced software platform ever for a mobile device.”

The iPhone SDK is available for download for free. With the SDK they’ll have access to the iPhone Simulator and all the information they’ll need to create native applications and distribute it through the Application Store for iPhone and iPod Touch owners. Apple boasts that their Multi-Touch interface, Core Animation, storage space, 3-axis accelerometer, and triangular cellular tower locater will allow creation of even more unique and powerful iPhone Apps.

Developers who create iPhone Applications will be able to retain 70% of the sales revenue of the amount sold through the new Apps Store. Developers will also have to purchase either a $99 standard license or a $299 enterprise license. In addition to the SDK-related content, the iPhone will also be getting other heavily demanded features such as the ability to view PowerPoint, Word, and Excel Documents and to mass delete messages. Anyways for the rest of you folks that aren’t interested in make applications but instead using them you’ll have to wait another three months for the final upgrade.

Video: March 6th Event with Steve Jobs
Links: iPhone Dev Program | iPhone Enterprise | Apple iPhone

Earlier today, Microsoft announced that Service Pack 1 for Windows Vista has been finalized and was released to manufacturers today. Unfortunately customers won’t have access to the upgrade which brings “enhanced reliability, security, compatibility and performance” until March. Consumer using the auto-update feature won’t receive the upgrade until April unless they manually download and install the patch. Microsoft claims performance improvements by as much as 50% for tasks such as moving large files around your machine or network. Today’s launch of SP1 to manufacturers indicates that new computers produced by companies such as Dell, HP, and Sony soon be available with the upgraded Vista pre-installed. In addition, new shipments of licensed retail boxes of Vista will come with SP1.

Hopefully the changes will help fix many of the major problems which a fairly large portion of customers are experiencing. SP1 for Vista will probably still not help it gain a lead over the performance XP will be offering with the upcoming Service Pack 3. Despite this, Vista users should be glad that at least some improvements have been made and will be available within a foreseeable date.

Links: Windows Vista Blog Post | Microsoft Vista